The Proficiency-Oriented Language Instruction and Assessment (POLIA) Train-the-Trainer Program
The Proficiency-Oriented Language Instruction and Assessment (POLIA) Train-the-Trainer program was launched in January 1997, with support from the Eisenhower Professional Development Program, in order to continue the work of the Minnesota Articulation Project (MNAP) to promote proficiency-oriented language instruction and assessment among K-12 world language teachers in Minnesota. The year long program was funded for an additional cycle in 1998. In all, the POLIA program provided intensive professional development for fifty language teachers on the principles and practices related to proficiency-oriented language instruction and assessment and how they are integrated with the state and national language standards. The program used MNAP's Proficiency-Oriented Language Instruction and Assessment: A Curriculum Handbook for Teachers as a key resource in training, along with materials developed specifically for the POLIA program.
During each year of the program, a cohort of twenty-five participating teachers became trainers in their own right and, working in teams, delivered workshops to world language teachers in their districts and in neighboring districts. During the first cycle of the program (1997-1998), trainers delivered workshops throughout the state that reached over 400 world language teachers. Because of the program's success, a second year of funding was approved and POLIA trainers in the second year delivered workshops to over 300 world language teachers in Minnesota, Oregon, Indiana, and Mississippi.
- Background and description of the POLIA
train-the-trainer program
- A POLIA training photo scrapbook
